A political ode to fallThe autumnal equinox arrives today, but the chill in the September sun has come early to Washington. The cicadas are still singing, but won’t be for long. The days are getting shorter and darker. The garden knows it, too; the black-eyed Susans have only their black eyes left. The yellow peaches from West Virginia don’t know change is coming. They have harvest time left, the farmer told me. That made me glad. I love summer and hate to see it go...

Hope to keep people aliveLITTLE ROCK — September is Suicide Prevention Awareness Month in Arkansas and across the nation. Too many families are shattered by this painful act, and we all need to work together to make suicides a less frequent end to life. Suicide is the 10th-leading cause of all deaths in the United States. It is estimated nearly 5 million Americans have lost a loved one to suicide. In Arkansas, 400 suicides took place last year, ranking the state 15th....

Letters to the editor (Sept. 19, 2013)Quorum Court millage ordinance I take offense to Ben Cross’ justification for increasing the county’s millage rate based on a comparison to 1994. True the county millage rate hasn’t increased since 1994, but should it? When our personal finances are such that our expenditures exceed our revenues, can we just vote ourselves a raise, or do we have to cut back and live within our means? The relevant facts on the matter is that Pope county populat...

Will your day be rainy, sunny or a bad stormy?CONWAY — If you are old enough to remember the days when you were driving down the road and would come to a car or truck pulled over to the side, the hood up, and steam bellowing from the radiator, you will certainly relate to what I want to share with you today. Before the days of modern technology, cars and trucks had a radiator to hold water to keep them cool and a radiator cap with a thermostat to monitor the temperature. If the radiator g...

Smart power versus serendipitySerendipitous events do not a strategy make. Watching events surrounding Syria unfold the last few weeks, and the Obama administration and media’s cheers of victory these last few days, is proof that our current leadership does not understand the difference between happenstance and strategy. A quick review of events: the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian government on civilians; tough talk by President Barack Obama; an administration push ...

Business leader Hill runs for the HouseHouse District 35 stretches from the northern part of Little Rock out past Pinnacle Mountain. Like at least a third of the state’s House seats, it will have no incumbent in next year’s elections. It would not be worth singling out except for this: Its announced Republican candidate is French Hill, one of the state’s top-tier business figures. There are no current legislators who fit that description. In fact, there usually aren’t. Hill’s name ...

Corporatizing critters — from cuteness to crueltyBoth the old and new media agree on this: If you need a story that’s guaranteed to be wildly popular — go with animals. “Kute kittens,” for example, are surefire winners, as is the entire p-group: puppies, porpoises, penguins and polar bears. And don’t forget baby chicks, goats and other farm animals — they can be awfully cute and cuddly, too. One group that’s noticed this is corporate America, and some of the biggest corporations have jumped ...

Elections that matterYou may not have noticed yesterday, but an important election took place in Arkansas that is likely to affect you in a direct way. Unfortunately, you probably heard little about it and odds are that you did not cast a ballot. I am referring to the local school board elections that take place in Arkansas on the third Tuesday of September. These local officials often have a direct impact on the lives of the community. If you have children or gra...

Political Animals Club gets off to good startA real debate threatened to break out near the end of the inaugural meeting of the Northeast Arkansas Political Animals Club Friday. The featured speaker, former Congressman Asa Hutchinson, who is running for governor again, had made the requisite Republican castigation of “Obamacare” before opening the floor to questions. After two or three about the teacher insurance issue, one senior citizen stood up and said: “I am extremely disappointed i...

State board allows districts to are staffThe state board that licenses private security firms voted to allow 13 Arkansas school districts to train and arm staff. Many of the schools are in rural areas where there is a relatively long response time for officers from the closest police department or sheriff’s office. Superintendents of the schools said it was cheaper to train and arm existing staff than to pay for officers from private security firms. The vote by the Arkansas Board of ...

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Sen. Michael LamoureuxThe Courier Your Messenger For The River Valley

School funding issues returnLITTLE ROCK — A looming hike in premiums for 47,000 teachers and a lawsuit pending before the state’s highest court are reminders that six years after the end of the Lake View case, Arkansas may not be finished with its school funding battles. After a legislative session that was dominated by health care, tax cuts and social issues, lawmakers are facing the possibility of returning to the state Capitol for the first school-related special sess...

Growing wild mint: The perfect versatile addition to any herb gardenThis past spring I found a large patch of wild mint growing out in Harkey Valley in Yell County. With its square stalks, pointed leaves, and tall spikes of purple flowers, the plant stood over two feet tall. It blanketed a large patch of the former pasture, growing up past the top row of the rusty barbed wire fence. In the late afternoon sun the pale flowers seemed to glow. I picked a few of the leaves and crushed them in my hand, breathing in...

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Meredith Martin-MoatsThe Courier Your Messenger For The River Valley

Insurance solutions for school employeesLITTLE ROCK — Amid all the current changes in American and Arkansas health care, we are also working to address the rising costs that have helped create a serious problem for an important segment of our society. In this case, the issue has been brought into focus by the plight of the Public School Employee Plan, which provides insurance for teachers and other school-district employees. The structure of the Plan has been a concern for many year...

Who says Congress is ‘excellent’?A new poll by Rasmussen Reports finds that seven percent of Americans think Congress is doing an “excellent” (one percent) or “good” (six percent) job. Seven percent? That’s shocking. How could it possibly be so high? While the country’s attention has been focused on Syria — and rightfully so — during these past few weeks, the U.S. government is headed toward more of these completely unnecessary fiscal crises that are becoming all too familiar...

Letters to the Editor (Sept. 14, 2013)We need to control the USA I was recently asked about the United States involvement in Syria and if I thought we should launch a limited attack. Of course my first impression was of course. We drew the line in the sand, women and children are fleeing for their lives and pleading for our help, so yes we need to don our Captain American costume and free the people. The problem is, just like our president, I got ahead of myself and was ready to e...

Picking up the pieces of 9/11WASHINGTON — So it’s Sept. 11, 2013 and here I am at a precious pile: the U.S. Capitol. This marble citadel on a hill was the missed target. The last of “The Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States” nearly happened here in 2001. A sharpshooter stands sentry on the veranda to keep us safe. It’s 93 degrees on a late summer day, reminding you we are down South. The gracious grounds are now chopped up by bollards, checkpoints and a bunker-like vi...

An unusual football gameDid I ever tell you about my football-playing days when I was in high school? We did well until the last game of the season when the decision was made to let the coach go. He had a 5-5 record. He lost five at home and he lost five on the road. In all seriousness, I would like to tell you about the most unusual football game I have ever heard about in my life. The most significant thing that came from this was not so much about the game itself,...

Obama on Syria: Following from behindOut of the corner of my eye, as I was passing a television, I saw a plane fly into a building. The sound was not on, and I thought, it must be a small plane and a small building. An errant pilot or a plane with failing equipment that crashed when it intended to land. I was wrong. It was Sept. 11, 2001, and what I had seen out of the corner of my eye were the first moments of a coordinated terrorist attack on our country. The devastation and de...

Arkansas speaks on SyriaWhen the country is considering military action — no matter how limited we’re all promised it will be — everything else takes a back seat. That’s been the case regarding Syria throughout Arkansas and across the country, and as we’ve seen, it matters what the public believes. In eastern Arkansas’ 1st District, Rep. Rick Crawford’s office said Tuesday of more than 700 phone calls his office had received, more than 99 percent had been opposed to ...

Citizens should make ethics a major issue in District 21 special electionOne of the best things the voters in Arkansas Senate District 21 could do for the state is to make ethics a primary issue in the special election to replace an incumbent who resigned on ethical grounds. Since I’m one of those voters, here’s a start. District 21 covers the western half of Craighead County, including my hometown of Jonesboro. Until Paul Bookout’s resignation on Aug. 20, the Bookout name had been magic in Jonesboro politics since...